How the Guardians of the Galaxy credits stinger came together

Before you read any further, if you haven’t seen GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, firstly shame on you, and secondly there will be spoilers pertaining to the post-credits scene in the movie within this post. We will be discussing how director James Gunn came up with the idea and why Marvel approved it. We might now also know what it means, if anything, for any future Marvel Studios movie surrounding it.

I’ve already said too much, so it’s time for a final warning:

So as the majority of you reading this now know, the end-credits stinger of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY features a quick but funny scene with Howard the Duck. This was certainly a surprise to me and more than likely confusing for a lot of viewers. In short, Howard the Duck is an original Marvel Comics creation who was brought to the big screen for the first time in the George Lucasproduced movie. The movie has become a cult classic for reasons that Lucas would rather forget. So now almost 30 years later, with the stinger at the end of GOTG, we see Howard the Duck (voiced by Seth Green) talking to the Collector in his lab; this time he looks more in-line with what you would find in classic Marvel comics featuring the feathered loud mouth.

It turns out the credit scene began as a joke during editing; director James Gunn revealed more to Empire Magazine:

“I think it was some combination of me and the editor Fred Raskin who said, ‘Let’s put Howard The Duck in there. What if The Collector looks over and sees Howard The Duck sitting there?’ And I wrote down the line, ‘Whaddya let it lick you like that for? Gross.’ Fred and I thought it was hilarious, but we weren’t sure that (Head of Marvel Studios) Kevin Feige would go for it. But we told Kevin and Kevin couldn’t stop laughing, so that’s how it came about.”

Gunn also dismisses a future Howard The Duck movie, but says anything is possible:

“I’ll be honest with you, I was just talking about it with my assistant right now,” laughs Gunn. “It’s possible Howard could reappear as more of a character in the Marvel Universe. But if people think that’s going to lead to a Howard The Duck movie, that’s probably not going to happen in the next four years. Who knows after that?”

Marvel head Kevin Feige talked to CBR about the Howard the Duck cameo:

[Laughs] I think it would be fun to lay claim to Howard and to remind people that he’s more than just a pseudonym for film failure. And that he is a Marvel character. That would be fun.

The post-credit scene was a lot of fun, especially if you grew up watching the Howard The Duck movie way more than you should have. While the future is unclear for Howard The Duck, it's nice to know that he’s not forgotten. Here’s hoping he appears in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2 now that he’s free from Knowhere.